{"id":34,"date":"2005-12-22T18:02:22","date_gmt":"2005-12-22T18:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritoffootball.com\/2006\/blog\/?p=34"},"modified":"2010-01-18T22:58:16","modified_gmt":"2010-01-18T22:58:16","slug":"an-illustrated-history-of-the-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/blog\/2005\/12\/22\/an-illustrated-history-of-the-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"An illustrated history of &#8220;The Ball&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The ball that we kick to the Opening Ceremony of the World Cup is always the official World Cup ball for that tournament. If we&#8217;d had the idea in 1974, these are the balls we&#8217;d have been kicking:<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1974: TELSTAR<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1974.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1974: TELSTAR\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nAccording to FIFA, this was the first ball with 32 black and white panels to make it more visible on black and white television screens.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1978: TANGO<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1978.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1978: TANGO\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nSupposedly a more design representing &#8220;elegance, dynamism and passion&#8221;!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1982: TANGO<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1982.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1982: TANGO\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nThis ball&#8217;s innovation was its waterproof design.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1986: AZTECA<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1986.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1986: AZTECA\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nThe first synthetic match ball<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1990: ETRUSCO<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1990.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1990: ETRUSCO\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nThe first ball with an internal layer of foam<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1994: QUESTRA<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1994.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1994: QUESTRA\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nDesigned to fly faster through the air<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1998: TRICOLORE<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1998.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1998: TRICOLORE\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nThe first multi-coloured ball<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>2002: FEVERNOVA<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/2002\/ball\/the_ball_on_white_200.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 2002: FEVERNOVA\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nRadical restyling<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>2006: TEAMGEIST<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/2006\/ball\/the_ball_2006_unsigned_sm.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 2006: TEAMGEIST\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nApparently this is the most accurate ball to date &#8212; the seams on the official ball (not the replica pictured here) are flush to the surface and should cause less air turbulence as it flys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ball that we kick to the Opening Ceremony of the World Cup is always the official World Cup ball for that tournament. If we&#8217;d had the idea in 1974, these are the balls we&#8217;d have been kicking:<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1974: TELSTAR<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1974.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1974: TELSTAR\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nAccording to FIFA, this was the first ball with 32 black and white panels to make it more visible on black and white television screens.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1978: TANGO<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1978.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1978: TANGO\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nSupposedly a more design representing &#8220;elegance, dynamism and passion&#8221;!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1982: TANGO<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1982.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1982: TANGO\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nThis ball&#8217;s innovation was its waterproof design.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1986: AZTECA<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1986.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1986: AZTECA\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nThe first synthetic match ball<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1990: ETRUSCO<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1990.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1990: ETRUSCO\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nThe first ball with an internal layer of foam<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1994: QUESTRA<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1994.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1994: QUESTRA\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nDesigned to fly faster through the air<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>1998: TRICOLORE<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/balls\/the_ball_1998.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 1998: TRICOLORE\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nThe first multi-coloured ball<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>2002: FEVERNOVA<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/2002\/ball\/the_ball_on_white_200.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 2002: FEVERNOVA\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nRadical restyling<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>2006: TEAMGEIST<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theball.tv\/common\/images\/2006\/ball\/the_ball_2006_unsigned_sm.jpg\" alt=\"The Ball 2006: TEAMGEIST\" style=\"width:200px;height:150px\" \/><br \/>\nApparently this is the most accurate ball to date &#8212; the seams on the official ball (not the replica pictured here) are flush to the surface and should cause less air turbulence as it flys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"geo":null,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2006\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}